Designing Courses

Pre-College Topics Home Schooling
1

<p>I’ve been homeschooled my whole life, and am now a rising senior. Throughout my homeschooling years, and particularly high school years, I don’t really feel like I’ve taken full advantage of homeschooling. I’ve taken five AP courses so far, and about 15 CC courses, and while these have been good classes, I feel like I could be doing something more creative. </p>

<p>As this will be my last school year, I’d like to design a couple of unique courses as this is something homeschoolers are fortunate enough to be able to do and something that isn’t so widely available in college. And by unique, I don’t mean like “Biology” or “English” but something a little more focused. Since I’m interested in a Russian major, I’m interested in designing a Russian Literature course which includes reading several of the prominent Russian works I haven’t read; or maybe studying a specifc area of history. I suppose these questions will mainly be for parents. So…have you designed more unique courses? Does anyone have an examples of courses they’ve designed/done or any advice in designing your own courses? I’m not too worried about grades/documentation; it’s not so much for colleges as it is for personal and educational enjoyment and growth.</p>

<p>I’m going to take a few AP classes and community college courses this year as always, but I would like to do this as well just to enhance my education a little more before college. =) Thanks in advance for any help.</p>

2

<p>You probably don’t need to think of it in terms of designing a course. Instead just pursue something that interests you. You can create a reading list like you’re thinking of for Russian lit, and then also learn about the historical context the writers were working in, learn about their lives, maybe read some thoughtful criticism of a few of the books, see some film adaptations of the books you read.</p>

<p>My son did something like that for existential lit. Both my kids see lots and lots of theater, so on their transcripts there was a Shakespeare “course” and also a theater appreciation “course” that covered years of performances they saw.</p>

<p>They did a variety of things like that.</p>

3

<p>When my daughter wanted to create her own course in Western Civilization, we researched a number of college syllabi for Western Civ that are available on the Internet. They were rich with resources and structure that gave us a good jumping off point. DD wants in include a lot of primary sources, historical fiction, and films. These various syllabi were very useful to us in identifying some options. It sounds like a great adventure you are planning! Enjoy.</p>